Aerogels are one of the most interesting materials of the 21st century owing to their high porosity, low density, and large available surface area. Historically, aerogels have been used for highly efficient insulation and niche applications, such as interstellar particle capture. Recently, aerogels have made their way into the composite universe. By coupling nanomaterial with a variety of matrix materials, lightweight, high-performance composite aerogels have been developed for applications ranging from lithium-ion batteries to tissue engineering materials. In this paper, the current status of aerogel composites based on nanomaterials is reviewed and their application in environmental remediation, energy storage, controlled drug delivery, tissue engineering, and biosensing are discussed.

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The high carrier mobility of graphene makes it an attractive material for electronics, however, graphene's application for optoelectronic systems is limited due to its low optical absorption. We present a cavity-coupled nanopatterned graphene absorber designed to sustain temporal and spatial overlap between localized surface plasmon (LSP) resonance and cavity modes, thereby resulting in enhanced absorption up to an unprecedented value of theoretically 60% and experimentally measured 45% in mono-layer graphene in the technologically relevant 8-12 μm atmospheric transparent infrared imaging band. We demonstrate a wide electrostatic tunability of the absorption band (~ 2 μm) by modifying the Fermi energy. The proposed device design allows enhanced absorption and dynamic tunability of chemical vapor deposition (CVD) grown low carrier mobility graphene which provides a significant advantage over previous strategies where absorption enhancement was limited to exfoliated high carrier mobility graphene. We developed an analytical model that incorporates the coupling of the graphene electron and substrate phonons, providing valuable and instructive insights into the modified plasmon-phonon dispersion relation necessary to interpret the experimental observations. Such gate voltage and cavity tunable enhanced absorption in chemical vapor deposited large area mono-layer graphene paves the path towards the scalable development of ultrasensitive infrared photodetectors, modulators, and other optoelectronic devices.

Cable-shaped supercapacitors (SCs) have recently aroused significant attention due to their attractive properties such as small size, lightweight, and bendability. Current cable-shaped SCs have symmetric device configuration. However, if an asymmetric design is used in cable-shaped supercapacitors, they would become more attractive due to broader cell operation voltages, which results in higher energy densities. Here, a novel coil-type asymmetric supercapacitor electrical cable (CASEC) is reported with enhanced cell operation voltage and extraordinary mechanical-electrochemical stability. The CASECs show excellent charge-discharge profiles, extraordinary rate capability (95.4%), high energy density (0.85 mWh cm(-3)), remarkable flexibility and bendability, and superior bending cycle stability (≈93.0% after 4000 cycles at different bending states). In addition, the CASECs not only exhibit the capability to store energy but also to transmit electricity simultaneously and independently. The integrated electrical conduction and storage capability of CASECS offer many potential applications in solar energy storage and electronic gadgets.

Anisotropic electrical conductivity was introduced into bulk polymer derived ceramics by embedded reduced graphene oxide aerogels.